Report: Netanyahu offers major land swap with PA

PM reportedly told Trump envoys he is prepared to surrender large swath of pre-1967 Israel to PA in exchange for 'settlement blocs'.

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David Rosenberg, 27/07/17 20:47 | updated: 20:54

Binyamin Netanyahu meets with Donald Trump at Ben Gurion Airport

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Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has informed the Trump administration, Channel 2 reported Thursday night, that he is prepared to make considerable concessions from pre-1967 Israel to the Palestinian Authority in a final status agreement in exchange for Israel’s annexation of major population centers in Judea and Samaria.

According to the report, Netanyahu made the offer during meetings with White House envoys on Thursday, stating that his government would be prepared to surrender territory in the Wadi Ara region, east of the Netanyahu-Hadera-Haifa bloc in the coastal plain, in exchange for a final status agreement with the PA which recognized Israeli annexation of large “settlement blocs” in Judea and Samaria, including the Gush Etzion bloc.

The Wadi Ara region includes major Israeli-Arab cities, including Umm al-Fahm, the home town of the three terrorists who murdered two Israeli Border Police officers near the Temple Mount on July 14th.

Also in the Wadi Ara region are almost a dozen Jewish towns, including Harish, which is in the process of a significant expansion program, raising the population from just 1,000 to a projected 100,000 in the coming years. No details on which portions of the Wadi Ara region would be offered were disclosed.

If true, the proposal marks the first time the Prime Minister has gone on record offering significant territorial concessions from pre-1967 Israel in exchange for a final status agreement with the Palestinian Authority.

Neither the White House nor the Prime Minister’s Office have responded to the report.